Monday, July 20, 2015

Nearly two years have passed since news broke that the long-vacant building at 222 E. 13th St. near Third Avenue would become the Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth.

Today, though, as Out Magazinefirst reported, the center breaks ground for the facility that will accommodate 18 residents.

Arthur, who died in April 2009, left $300,000 to the Ali Forney Center, an organization supporting homeless LGBT youth, in her will. In 2012, City Council as well as then-Borough President Scott Stringer awarded the Ali Forney Center and the Cooper Square Committee $3.3 million for the residence.

The property had been owned by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Executive Director Carl Siciliano of the Ali Forney Center will be in attendance at the ground breaking with several elected officials. In a press release, Siciliano said: "It meant the world to me that a star of the magnitude of Bea Arthur would do so much to help the Ali Forney Center in our work of housing homeless LGBT youths. I am very grateful that we will now be able to honor Bea and continue to keep her compassion alive through the establishment of the Bea Arthur Residence for Homeless LGBT Youth."

And here's a rendering from July 2012 of what the property will look like when it opens later next year...

23 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I swear I was just thinking about this place last night and wondered if the plans had been scrapped and the property sold to a developer (the excuse being something like, we got $7 million for it so now we will build some new box of a building out in Queens instead). This is great news.

They received all this money to build it, but where will the money come from to run it? I still don't understand how this makes financial sense? A big box in Queens seems like a better option - more beds, cheaper to buy, more money saved to run.

That's great! I used to live at 228 East 12th and I always wondered what was going to happen to that building. The Ali Forney Center is a great organization and I'm happy to have them in the neighborhood. It'll definitely balance out the condo across the street and David Zwirner's uber-mansion down the block.

What you don't understand is that many of the clients are nonwhite and from Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. It is better and safer for them here. They are closer to other services they may need They receive public and private money to operate. You understand these kids have been disowned and kicked to the curb? The harsh reality is that the outer boroughs aren't exactly bastions of tolerance When you're 16 and your family boots you-the EV is better than Queens. That's reality. Start your life is a new area with people who support you. Sorry to bash the outer boroughs. Better this than condos. 'Big box in Queens". Yes put those damn homeless in Queens in boxes. Please stfu and move back to Iowa bro.

July 20, 2015 at 11:14 AM - you're talking about children, children who are readily victimized by exploitive freaks who provide them with food, drugs and shelter in exchange for sex. We're talking about children here. There is plenty of fucking tax payer money to run a center like this. but thats capitalism!

It is great to see this center opening here in the East Village. This neighborhood is the perfect location, and it is also in the spirit of what the East Village--at least the East Village I know and love--is about. We need to help these kids and protect them.

Just because there is "plenty of money" to fund this operation doesn't mean it's going to get any of it. 18 beds in a Manhattan townhouse looks financially short-sighted and will under-serve this population from the start. The City saw an opportunity to sell/dump a derelict building and Councilwoman Mendez can talk about it in her constituent newsletter. Also, the East Village is now filled with drunk, white adult males running from sports bar to luxury rental to sports bar. At best, it's alienating, at worst, its dangerous for LGBTQ youth of color when they step out of the door. Finally, it's 2015, it's time to stop encouraging 1) kids they have to run away to be themselves and 2) families to dispose of their kids out of sight, out of mind. Let's establish resources in the communities that need them to show the LGBTQ community exists, is strong, and supports our youth wherever they live.

I'm a big supporter of kids that are having a hard time. Accordingly, I too have to question the wisdom of having this facility in one of the most expensive areas in not just NY, but the western world. I totally understand that they want to keep it accessible, so a facility in the city will reach more kids than one in Fort Lee, but they could have housed and helped probably twice as many if not many, many more if they would have either been willing to go to upper manhattan or just go over a bridge or tunnel. It just seems like an extravagance.

How does Ali Forney have additional housing if the director promised their first building would be named after Bea Arthur? In EV there has been a loss of possible sites of affordable housing going to non-profit organizations (esp. the front runner Community Access). They used to rent apts. in the area now with the increases they went the route of being awarded buildings by the city because of political connections and their history of providing services for homeless mentally ill. So in this neighborhood alone I think they have 6 or more properties while greater across the city. Yes, as most non-profits they set up shop in poor undeserved blighted communities as NIMBY is prevalent in rich neighborhoods. So is it fair and does it reflect a just society? Hell no. esp. as it creates a weighted neighborhood. I remember Catholic Worker thoght of pulling out of this area as they want to serve the needy and the demographic has since changed. Historically this neighborhood has been the plaything of the people in political power and to a large extent remains so.

Anon 2:16 your stuff is so racist sorry. But the implications are that outer boroughs are intolerant colored bigots. NYC is changing all across the board and are we not in this century for integration not segregation?

Well Im not sorry. The facts are what they are. If these people werent intolerant bigots this facility wouldnt be needed. Im not implying anything. I stated facts. Does this make you uncomfortable? Its just like out in LA where most of the homeless youth are LGBT persons of color. Same dynamic here. Ive volunteered with these kids. Sorry if the truth bothers you. I guess you thought that doesnt happen here in liberal NYC ? Well it sure does. Happens all them time. Kids leave abusive homes or get booted. And all the commenters here want them warehoused in Queens. Seems like a lot of you want them out. I suppose all the poors should be out of Manhattan right? I guess the area has finally tipped to where the fucking douchebags have overrun EV Grieve as well. Unreal. The real racists are people like anon 7:51pm, anon 8:27pm, who wont be honest about why they dont want this facility here. Guess they should have built condos right?

I've known many people of all races/ethnicities who've been shoved out by their families and communities, and it does tend to happen more in communities of color here in NYC, not because they are communities of color, but because that's where poverty is most heavily concentrated in this city (see institutional/systemic racism - it very much exists here). Putting these kids back in those same communities will NOT help them.

There are a lot of douchebags barhopping in the EV at night, but these types of programs typically have curfews, so I doubt there will be much interaction between the two groups, and during the day, the kids will be close to the services they need.

Ideally, the Ali Forney Center would be well-funded enough to open up smaller centers like this all around the city, so these kids can come of age immersed in the local communities. Warehousing them in some large building in Queens or elsewhere is exactly the opposite of what you want to do - unless you're the kind of person who just wants to throw them away somewhere and forget about them (in which case, I have no use for you!). It's frankly the same thing that should be done with public housing - build mixed income buildings with some of the units heavily subsidized and integrate people back into the communities. Concentrating poverty in one area DOES NOT WORK.

This is the first building that the Ali Forney Center will own. They formed the Bea Arthur Residence with the Cooper Square Committee, and are joint owners. Ali Forney rents apartments from private landlords in a number of other buildings to house about 80 kids arouind the city. They pays rents of $4,000 a month for a market rate, 3 bedroom apartment to house 6 kids in a safe neighborhood. It will be much more cost effective to own this building without a mortgage, and exempt from real estate taxes since they are a non-profit. The city was never going to sell this building for market rate housing because the community board would oppose that 10000%. So the only thing that could be developed here would have to have a public purpose, and this is the best one I could think of.

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